110+ Heraclitus Quotes On Change, War And Death

Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived around 500 BC. He is best known for his philosophy of change, where he argued that everything is in a constant state of flux and nothing is permanent. He is also famous for his cryptic sayings, such as "No man ever steps in the same river twice" and "The only thing that is constant is change." Following is our collection on famous quotes by Heraclitus on change, war, death.

Top 10 Heraclitus Quotes

1. There is nothing permanent except change.
2. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become.
3. Big results require big ambitions.
4. No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
5. Change alone is unchanging.
6. Dogs bark at what they don't understand.
7. Day by day, what you do is who you become.
8. What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity.
9. Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings.
10. A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus Image Quotes

Big results require big ambitions. — Heraclitus

Change alone is unchanging. — Heraclitus

What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity. — Heraclitus

A man's character is his fate. — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Short Quotes

• A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one.
• Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
• If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not recognize it when it arrives.
• You cannot step into the same river twice.
• The sun is new each day.
• It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.
• Presumption must be quenched even more than a fire.
• The wise is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus.
• The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.
• Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world.

Heraclitus Quotes About Change

Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed... Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the moist dries, the parched becomes moist... It is in changing that things find repose. — Heraclitus

There is nothing permanent except change. [Therefore enjoy what good you have while you have it and endure and outlast what bad you can't cure immediately] — Heraclitus

Nothing endures but change. There is nothing permanent except change. All is flux, nothing stays still. — Heraclitus

Everything flows and nothing abides. Everything gives way and nothing stays fixed. — Heraclitus

The only constant in life is change — Heraclitus

Nothing endures but change. — Heraclitus

Change is the only constant. — Heraclitus

All is flux; nothing stays still. — Heraclitus

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Nothing endures but change. — Heraclitus

There is a stability in the Universe because of the orderly and balanced process of change, the same measure coming out as going in, as if reality were a huge fire that inhaled and exhaled equal amounts. — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Quotes About War

God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger. — Heraclitus

Realize that war is common and justice is strife, and that all things come into being and pass away through strife. — Heraclitus

War is the father of all things. — Heraclitus

One must know that war is common, justice is strife, and everything happens according to strife and necessity. — Heraclitus

War is the mother of everything. — Heraclitus

War is the father and king of all. — Heraclitus

War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free. — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Quotes About Death

Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life. — Heraclitus

Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death. — Heraclitus

A drunk man, staggering and mindless, must be led home by his son, so wet is his psyche... Water brings death to the psyche, as earth brings death to water... The psyche lusts to be wet. — Heraclitus

Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than is dung. — Heraclitus

For when is death not within our selves? And as Heracleitus says: “Living and dead are the same, and so are awake and asleep, young and old. The former when shifted are the latter, and again the latter when shifted are the former." — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Quotes About Flux

All things are in a state of flux. — Heraclitus

All is flux, nothing is stationary. — Heraclitus

Everything is in flux. — Heraclitus

All things come into being through opposition and all are in flux like a river — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Quotes About Wisdom

Those who love wisdom must investigate many things — Heraclitus

The most beautiful ape is ugly when compared to a human. The wisest human will seem like an ape when compared to a god with respect to wisdom, beauty, and everything else. — Heraclitus

Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise. — Heraclitus

Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeated all things. — Heraclitus

Men who are lovers of wisdom [i.e., philosophers] must be inquirers into many things. — Heraclitus

Wisdom is one thing, to know how to make true judgment, how all things are steered through all things. — Heraclitus

Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed. — Heraclitus

Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars. — Heraclitus

To be evenminded is the greatest virtue. Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature. — Heraclitus

The people must fight for their laws as for their walls. — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Quotes About Character

A man's character is his guardian divinity. — Heraclitus

The content of your #‎ character is your #‎ choice. — Heraclitus

Character is destiny. — Heraclitus

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny — Heraclitus

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character. — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Quotes About People

Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls. — Heraclitus

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle. — Heraclitus

Most people do not take heed of the things they encounter, nor do they grasp them even when they have learned about them, although they suppose they do. — Heraclitus

The people must fight on behalf of the law as though for the city wall. — Heraclitus

People ought to fight to keep their law as to defend the citys walls. — Heraclitus

The majority of people have no understanding of the things with which they daily meet, nor, when instructed, do they have any right knowledge of them, although to themselves they seem to have. — Heraclitus

The people should fight for the law as for their city wall. — Heraclitus

To God all things are beautiful, good, and right; human beings, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong. It would not be better if things happened to people just as they wish. — Heraclitus

Heraclitus Famous Quotes And Sayings

Big results require big ambitions. — Heraclitus

Change alone is unchanging. — Heraclitus

What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity. — Heraclitus

We have to be faster in calming down a resentment than putting out a fire, because the consequences of the first are infinitely more dangerous than the results of the last; fire ends burning down some houses at the most, while the resentment can cause cruel wars, with the ruin and total destruction of nations. — Heraclitus

A man's character is his fate. — Heraclitus

It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul. — Heraclitus

The best of men choose one thing in preference to all else, immortal glory in preference to mortal good; whereas the masses simply glut themselves like cattle. — Heraclitus

To get everything you want is not a good thing. Disease makes health seem sweet. Hunger leads to the appreciation of being full-fed. Tiredness creates the enjoyment of resting — Heraclitus

If you do not hope, you will not win that which is not hoped for, since it is unattainable and inaccessible. — Heraclitus

Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things. — Heraclitus

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony. — Heraclitus

Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears. — Heraclitus

Everything flows, nothing stays still. — Heraclitus

No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger. — Heraclitus

Under the comb, the tangle and the straight path are the same. — Heraclitus

Because it is so unbelievable, the Truth often escapes being known. — Heraclitus

History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world. — Heraclitus

The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living. — Heraclitus

If we do not expect the unexpected, we will never find it. — Heraclitus

Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy. — Heraclitus

Much learning does not teach understanding. — Heraclitus

It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish. — Heraclitus

Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses. — Heraclitus

From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars. — Heraclitus

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do. — Heraclitus

The unexpected connection is more powerful than one that is obvious. — Heraclitus

It is by disease that health is pleasant; by evil that good is pleasant; by hunger, satiety; by weariness, rest. — Heraclitus

Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child. — Heraclitus

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it. — Heraclitus

Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child. — Heraclitus

The way up and the way down are one and the same. — Heraclitus

Where there is no strife there is decay: 'The mixture which is not shaken decomposes.' — Heraclitus

I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets — Heraclitus

Greater dooms win greater destinies. — Heraclitus

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. — Heraclitus

All men have the capacity of knowing themselves and acting with moderation. — Heraclitus

To me one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate. — Heraclitus

Even sleepers are workers and collaborators on what goes on in the universe. — Heraclitus

Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse. — Heraclitus

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. — Heraclitus

If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail. — Heraclitus

Knowing many things doesn't teach insight. — Heraclitus

The phases of fire are craving and satiety. — Heraclitus

If one does not expect the unexpected, one will not find it out, since it is not to be searched out, and difficut to compass. — Heraclitus

It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so that one becomes ruled by them. — Heraclitus

Bigotry is the sacred disease, and self-conceit tells lies. — Heraclitus

He who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for it is trackless and unexplored — Heraclitus

There is but one world common for those who are awake, but when men are asleep, each turns away into a world of his own. — Heraclitus

Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then demand of them an undeserved fee for such services. — Heraclitus

This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures. — Heraclitus

Bigotry is the sacred disease. — Heraclitus

Many who have learned from Hesiod the countless names of gods and monsters never understand that night and day are one — Heraclitus

Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back. — Heraclitus

Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. — Heraclitus

The path up and down is one and the same. — Heraclitus

The fairest harmony springs from discord. — Heraclitus

The chain of wedlock is so heavy that it takes two to carry it - and sometimes three. — Heraclitus

Those unmindful when they hear, for all they make of their intelligence, may be regarded as the walking dead. — Heraclitus

Things of which there is sight, hearing, apprehension, these I prefer. — Heraclitus

Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find it, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. — Heraclitus

Life Lessons by Heraclitus

1. Heraclitus taught that change is the only constant in life, and that we must accept and embrace change in order to live a fulfilling life.
2. He also believed that we should strive to understand the interconnectedness of all things, and that we should strive to find balance in life.
3. Lastly, Heraclitus taught that we should strive to be mindful of our actions and words, as they can have a lasting impact on the world around us.